Birmingham CRO, biotech company find a way to enhance client offerings through scientific collaboration

Birmingham, Ala. – Southern Research and Vivo Biosciences, Inc. have signed a collaborative agreement to promote and co-market services of the respective organizations in a way to align complementary market growth interests in the most cost efficient way, and to enhance their service offerings to clients.

“For many years now, the pharmaceutical research industry has been finding great value in collaborative research between different organizations,” said Dr. Andrew Penman, vice president of Drug Development at Southern Research. “We are pleased to be working with a Birmingham biotech neighbor, Vivo Biosciences, as contract research services partners. This will allow both of our organizations to offer a larger array of services to our clients in a cost-efficient manner.”

According to Singh, Southern Research’s national and international network of clients, and its range of drug discovery and preclinical drug developmentservices is specifically of value to Vivo Biosciences. In return, Vivo’s 3D mini-tumor models-which offer real time functional analysis-are very complimentary to Southern Research’s advanced drug screening processes.

“In this economy, such partnerships are a smart thing to do, but can also lead to new creativity and the development of new innovation,” said Penman. “We were fortunate to find such an interesting partner here in Birmingham.”

About Vivo Biosciences

Founded in 2004, Vivo Biosciences, Inc. is the developer of new ‘all-human’ bioassay platforms for preclinical research, drug discovery and therapeutics. The company relies on its patented HuBiogel™ technology which emulates the biology of normal and disease tissues in vitro. A series of 3-D or Mini-tumor bioassay systems are developed for rapid analysis of drug efficacy, toxicity and therapy prediction, the major bottlenecks of current DD pipeline. This high-value technology is offered worldwide to academic, private and government institutions. Privately held, the company is based in Birmingham, Alabama, and its products are marketed worldwide. www.vivobiotech.com.

About Southern Research

Southern Research is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 scientific research organization that conducts preclinical drug discovery and development, and advanced engineering research in materials, systems development, environment and energy. More than 550 scientific and engineering team members support clients and partners in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, defense, aerospace, environmental and energy industries. Southern Research is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., with facilities in Wilsonville, Ala., Anniston, Ala., Frederick, Md., and Durham, NC and offices in New Orleans, La., Washington, DC and Kiev, Ukraine. For more information about Southern Research and its capabilities and accomplishments, visit southernresearch.org.